The Rules: When To Follow The Rules Of Writing And When To Go Rogue by: Larissa Ione

THE RULES. Yeah, you know what they are. Don’t write about musician heroes or sports stars. Submit your manuscript only in Courier font. No sentence fragments. Always do an in-depth character interview so you know your hero and heroine. Make sure none of your characters’ names start with the same letter. You can’t sell a book if you don’t include a synopsis with the proposal. Avoid using “that.”

Etcetera, etcetera, blah, blah.

Okay, that said, writing rules exist for a reason, exactly like laws. Many laws, including crazy ones,( http://www.dumblaws.com/) exist because someone committed an act that didn’t quite pan out. For example, in Texas it is illegal to shoot a buffalo from the second story window of a hotel. You just know that some idiot attempted just that, leading lawmakers to create a law.

In the writing world, the hotel buffalo might be character names that start with the same letter or romances with sports star heroes. Maybe historically, those sports books have not done well, leading to the “no sports star” rule you hear all the time.

But…Susan Elizabeth Phillips, anyone?

There are clearly exceptions to every rule. They do exist for a reason, but they can be broken by the right author, the right circumstance.

I’ve always been vocal about learning the rules. I truly believe that the how-to books can be a writer’s best friend. I tell all aspiring authors to learn the rules. Memorize them. Live and breathe them.

Then throw them all away. Following the rules to the letter can stifle your voice, your writing, and your creativity. But it’s important to know them because people who break rules effectively know exactly why they are breaking them.

If you need to use a “that” in a sentence for clarity, use it! I can’t tell you how many unpublished contest entries I’ve read where it was obvious that the writer went through the manuscript and eliminated them to the point that some of the sentences needed a re-read. Take out the second “that” in my previous sentence and you can see what I mean. The first instance can be deleted. The second? I wouldn’t. Yeah, yeah, call the rule police.

Remember this (ooh, it’s a rule!): Readability and voice trumps perfection. Sure, grammatical correctness is, for the most part, desirable, but sometimes your voice or your character’s voice demands a broken rule…a missing comma, a run-on sentence, a sentence fragment.

And your plot might require a sports star, cancer, or two-dozen different supernatural species (yes, I heard the, “Don’t populate your paranormal romance with dozens of species,” rule to distraction when I was writing my Demonica series – which, I’m happy to say, has more than two dozen types of supernatural species populating the pages.)

Or you might hate Courier font (I can’t stand it, and neither can some editors I’ve talked to,) so if it drives you nuts, don’t use it! More and more New York publishers are now using word count instead of page count (most of mine are,) so the old formula that required the use of Courier because it imitated typewriter font with constant size/spacing isn’t as important. Follow publisher guidelines for manuscript format, but generally, they just want your book to be readable. I use Times New Roman 14, double-spaced, with 1” margins. Contrary to popular belief, your book won’t be rejected because you used 1” margins instead of 1 ½” or vice versa.

Basically, use common sense when determining which rules to bend or break. Take some risks if you feel comfortable. “Safe” has its place, but the occasional risk can provide a lot of excitement, unpredictability and edge in your writing. The clever rogue can break the rules without anyone ever realizing it happened.

So what about you? Are you a rule-breaker? If so, which of the infamous writing rules do you like to break?

*****

Larissa Ione, an Air Force veteran, has been a meteorologist, an EMT, and a professional dog trainer, often all at the same time. But she was always a writer, and her dream career became reality when she sold her very first story to Red Sage in 2006. She now a USA Today and New York Times bestselling author who writes for multiple publishers, including Grand Central Publishing, Kensington Books, and Samhain. She also co-writes erotic romantic suspense for Bantam Dell under the name Sydney Croft.

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